Over the years, publicists with whom I was arranging celebrity interviews have suggested questions to ask or avoid. Olivia Newton-John's handler, for instance, wanted me to be sure to ask about the skincare line founded by the singer's husband (I didn't) and about the Australian cancer center Newton-John bankrolled (I did).

But prior to the other week, no celebrity had personally reached out to request a specific tone for our interview. Then again, I'd never before talked to Kathy Griffin.

The flame-haired comedian, known for her impertinence while interviewing celebrities, has a penchant for the outrageous — on her reality series "My Life on the D-List," which ran from 2005 to 2010 on Bravo, on her eponymous 2011-13 talk show, also on Bravo, on her countless TV chat- and awards-show appearances and comedy specials, and in the stand-up act she'll bring to Proctors on Saturday. Knowing as much, I'd planned to be more playful and vernacular in my conversation with her than I've been with other celebrities.

The ante was raised when, two hours before the interview was scheduled to take place, Griffin tweeted me a request: "hope you have some highly inappropriate questions for me later."

When she got on the phone, I asked, "Have you ever given an interview while you were sitting on the toilet?"

Griffin paused, then, sounding thoughtful and not at all shocked or offended, said, "Yes. I have done so many interviews over the years that there have been times when I've done like 15 in a row. Sometimes I have to, you know, pee, and I will take the phone into the bathroom and mute it and just hope the reporter doesn't hear me pee."

She paused again, then said, "So there is your exclusive: Kathy Griffin has peed while doing an interview."

Her publicist called my cellphone half an hour early, hoping to push up the interview. I asked her to call back in five minutes. When she did and Griffin got on the line, I confessed to having been on the toilet during the first conversation with the publicist. Thus the inspiration for my opening question.

"Well there you go," she said. "That's what makes my comedy relatable: We've got that in common; we relate on that level."

Griffin will invite inappropriate questions and chat about bathroom habits, but she seems to have conflicted feelings about her image. On the one hand, she loves to be seen as a provocateur and to boast of the many shows she's been banned from, at least temporarily, because of her willingness to slag off on and generally gossip about people more famous than she. According to lore, a 2005 crack that then-11-year-old actress Dakota Fanning had entered rehab allegedly got Griffin fired from E!'s Oscars coverage; Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres are said to have refused to have her on their shows because of her comments about celebrities; and Griffin often has recounted how she was banned from "The View," then was in the running to be one of the hosts, then rebanned because of things she said about Barbara Walters. She casts herself as her audience's breathlessly gabby best friend who just happens to know dirt about celebs and is willing to share it.

She promised on the phone, "My live show ... is about speaking freely. Nothing is off the table; no one is safe, especially not me, and it's going to be an evening of inappropriate stories, possibly offensive material, not for the faint-of-heart, but the important thing is that everyone laugh and have a great time."

And yet Griffin craves acceptance, approval, validation. She put her ambition nakedly in the title of her 2011 Broadway show, "Kathy Griffin Wants a Tony." She's kept angling for a spot on "The View." Earlier this year she was thrilled, after six consecutive Grammy nominations for best comedy album, to finally win. Her publicist made a point of mentioning that Griffin last year was inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records for starring in 19 comedy specials on TV, besting a record long held by George Carlin. (Griffin's 20th special has since aired.)

And, Griffin added on the phone, "I'm halfway to an EGOT," the rare quadfecta of winning top awards in four disciplines: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. Just 12 people have earned the distinction, only six of them performers, including Rita Moreno, John Gielgud, Audrey Hepburn and Whoopi Goldberg.

Said Griffin, "I've got two Emmys, and I just won my first Grammy ... so now I've got to figure out the '-OT.' "

Outlining her strategy for collecting an Oscar and a Tony, Griffin said, "I know it's going to be a tough road ahead of me, but I'll do whatever it takes. I'm sure they'll be calling me any moment for a revival of 'Guys & Dolls,' and I'm sure there's something from 'Mame' I can sing. And then for my Academy Award, of course I'm expecting a call any moment from David O. Russell or certainly Lee Daniels," directors, respectively, of the Oscar-lauded films "American Hustle" and "The Butler." Speaking of Daniels she said, "If he can handle Oprah, he can handle me."

Citing Louis CK's performances in "American Hustle" and Andrew Dice Clay's in "Blue Jasmine," she said, "There is a real history of comedians getting the appropriate big, meaty, dramatic film role, so I would love to do that."

Aware she'd perhaps strayed into more earnestness than is expected of a comedian in a phone interview, she changed tone and said, "But my first allegiance is to the people of Schenectady, to give them a good show. But I want to mention it's not 'Mamma Mia!' It's not the symphony that night. Leave the kids at home."

As the conversation wound down, Griffin asked whether I'd be returning to the bathroom. I said no.

"Good," she said. "That'll leave your right hand free for what it was intended to be used for." Her insinuation was clear.

And that seemed just right. Bill Cosby ended one of our interviews with the instruction to hug my mother, who'd played his comedy albums for me as a kid. Mel Brooks said he'd had such a good time during our conversation that he was going to mention it to his old pal Carl Reiner when they had dinner that night.